1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-contact electrical connector and in particular a connector for use in connecting ceramic substrate packages to other circuitry, for example, a printed circuit board.
2. The Prior Art
Integrated circuit devices are commonly mounted on relatively thin ceramic plates, commonly referred to as substrates, which have conductors therein extending from the integrated circuit device or "chip" to the marginal portions of at least one face of the substrate. Enlarged contact areas or contact pads are formed at the ends of the substrate conductors on one of the faces of the substrate for connecting the substrate conductors to external conductors. The substrate conductors are commonly connected to external conductors by multi-contact electrical connectors and a variety of types of connectors have been developed for use with the previously known designs of ceramic substrates.
Some of these integrated circuit devices have their contacts extending beyond the surface of the ceramic substrate and form what has been known as a DIP package and is used in combination with a DIP header. An example of such a connector is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,972.
More recently, and for reasons dictated by substrate manufacturing considerations and other reasons, substrates have been introduced which have their contact pad portions located on their sides rather than on their faces. Presently known connectors which were designed for substrates having the type terminal pads on their faces cannot be used with these newly developed types of substrates and cannot be adopted for use with side contact substrates. Examples of known substrate connectors may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,753,211; 3,754,203; 3,877,064; 3,910,664; 3,940,786; 3,960,423; 4,018,494; and 4,052,118.